Thursday, June 25, 2015

Narendra Modi's women Ministers and the moral crisis confronting the BJP

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books The year old Modi Government is facing a full blown political crisis and the Prime Minister cannot blame anyone but himself. Unlike the Congress which has a long history of ministerial misconduct, the BJP is new to power and is unable to effectively deal with the situation. In fact the ham handed manner in which the BJP put up its defense of Vasundhra Raje Scindia and Sushma Swaraj only made matters worse. The Prime Minister seems to have lost his voice and like Man Mohan Singh before him, has stopped speaking. The last major event he participated in was the International Yoge Day on June 21st, when the entire Rajpath came alive with Yoga exercises. The crux of the problem lies in the fact that the BJP lacks the intellectual ballast that can sustain its politics and its drive for political power. Whatever intellectual support it derives is from the Vivekananda Foundation and some turncoats who are now singing the BJP tune. Bereft of ideas and strategies, the BJP can now only hope that the storm passes away. And that is unlikely. The Ministers appointed are uneducated and do not understand the global and national issues even as they are imploding in the face of the Government. Of course, the Prime Minister has to deal with the material at hand and the worst part of Indian politics is that there is no place for the detached intellectual observer in the arena of politics. Smrithi Irani, a tele soap opera star, was entrusted with the tough task of running the Human Resource Development Ministry and she has doen such a poor job that even those who were inclined to give BJP and Narendra Modi a chance are now questioning the wisdom of voting for Modi. Smrithi Irani speaks good English but her lack of education is very real and she hides her inferiority by being brusque and arrogant. She has failed to make a mark in the field of education and has created unnecessary controversies, like over Yoge, German, the Four Year Degree Program and her silence over Vice Chancellors who have cheated the Government. She seems to be clueless about the issues at hand and appointing a self proclaimed 12 th standard Pass to such a ministry sent a signal down the line that Modi has scant respect for education. The affidavit case has embarrassed the Modi Government no end and this comes in the wake of the scandals of the other 2 women ministers of Modi's cabinet. Sushma Swaraj had earned a pride of place in Indian politics and was even Leader of the Opposition during the long dark years of the UPA. She was quick to corner the Singh Government on various issues stemming from the wanton corruption that went on during those years. She led the Party creditably and perhaps was smug enough to assume that she was the natural choice for being named the Prime Ministerial candidate, However, Narendra Modi pipped her to the post. Though Modi was not keen on giving her a top post, he was forced and the woman let him down badly by using her position to intervene in the immigration issues surrounding Lalit Modi, a scamster and a blackmailer who wasm primarily responsible for bringing the Kochi Tusker scandal into the public domain. He is a fugitive from the Indianlaw and the Foreign Minister of India cannot give an assurance to the British Government that any help rendered to this fugitive will not have a negative impact on India. Maybe the scandal will not hamper British Indian relations, but it has put a huge question mark over the future of Sushma Swaraj who is generally regarded as a performing minister. It has come to light that Swaraj Kaushal the Minister's husband and her daughter are both involved with Lait Modi. Vasundhara Raje Scindia takes the cake. This lady even files an affadavit in favor of the fugitive and has now been exposed. Her son, a BJP MP is neck deep in deals with Lalit Modi. Like Charles Shobraj, Lalit Modi will speell doom to all the three womane polticians of India. The BJP has handled this crisis so badly that the credibility of the Modi Government is dentted for sure.